In Between Odd Things
by Dean Gabriel
Summary: In between that odd thing you call love there are those odd things you call scrapes. Because every good relationship needs a good fight every now and then. TYL!Hibari/TYL!I-Pin


**Title:** In between odd things

**Series:** Katekyo Hitman Reborn!/Reborn!

**Rating:** T for mentions of sex

**Pairings:** HibaI-Pin

**Warnings: **Er... I make Hibari-sama sound like a pervert. No – paedophile. Which he is. 3

**Summary:** In between that odd thing you call love there are those odd things you call scrapes. Because every good relationship needs a good fight every now and then. TYL!Hibari/TYL!I-Pin

**Timeline: **11 years in the future

**Genre:** Romance/Hurt/Comfort

**Author's note: **Talk about a lame title. Forgive me. Forgive the perversion as well. I'm just a major pervert. And I can never resist making Hibari-sama go all paedo on poor I-Pin. And for the readers of my series Oddly Sincere, I apologise for the lack of an update. I'm planning on re-writing it _. Hisa if you are reading this, this is not the perverted fic I was talking about the other day. Er... other than that, enjoy and don't forget a review? 8D?

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I-Pin was staring out into space out the window at the library again. Hibari was getting frustrated. She would not talk to him about why she had been ignoring him the past few days. She cooked and cleaned and did her homework well, keeping house as dutifully as she always did while still being the student she was but kept well away from him in any other way (except at night where she would sleep in the same bed but stormed away if he tried to approach her). She spent the afternoons after school with her friends, visiting the library, picnicking and shopping (using his money!) and ignoring him when she was home.

The first thought that crossed his mind was, naturally, that he had done something to upset her which was already quite upsetting to himself. But he couldn't think of anything he'd done in the past week (though that wasn't unusual as he usually hurt her without realising it) and they'd gotten into quarrels before and she had always forgiven him easily.

'You should talk to her you know,' Hikari sensei said when he burst into the office one day, obviously in a bad mood. 'If she's angry at you and the answer isn't apparent as to why, you should talk to her.' He scowled at her as he left but later decided he might as well. He wouldn't admit it, not even to himself but he was reaching near desperation.

In class, I-Pin was courteous and attended to lessons with a polite expressionless look which Hikari-sensei had great fun telling I-Pin killed him on the inside.

Class that day with Hibari was quiet; he gave the children a worksheet compromising of maybe 20 pages covering everything they had learnt recently in the most difficult language possible. As he'd expected, I-Pin finished earlier than everyone else, keeping her reputation as the best student in the school even if there were emotional strain on her. He knew she deliberately handed in her work from the front of his desk instead of the side as she usually did where they could quietly pass messages to each other in their own discreet ways. He gave her an odd look as she came that could almost be called innocently questioning but she merely looked back quizzically as if he'd asked an impossible question.

It rained that afternoon as school ended. The students stormed out laughing and yelling under umbrellas and coats. I-Pin delibaretly stole her husband's umbrella from his office and stalked home underneath it. Hibari didn't complain when he saw it gone after the teachers' meeting. She'd probably argue that he'd gotten angry at her the other time she went home without an umbrella if he confronted her about it.

When he came home drenched, I-Pin was nowhere in sight and dinner was kept warm in the oven.

He was surprised to find her in the library when he'd dried off and went to look for her. She was crying into a cushion, her small delicate frame shaking with quiet sobs. He carefully concealed his surprise, however – and his presence as he silently walked in. He watched her for a moment before he carefully stepped over, sat down on the chair beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. She stopped crying at once.

The air became thick with an awkward silence. I-Pin didn't say anything so Hibari decided it was up to him to break the silence. 'I-Pin...?' No answer. 'Are you... alright...?' feeling foolish for some reason.

'Idiot asks the obvious,' I-Pin muttered sharply and he didn't know whether to be relieved she was talking to him again or annoyed at her answer.

'May I ask why?'

'No.' Now he was definitely annoyed.

'I-Pin I-'

'-have no right whatsoever to be prying in my business.'

'Actually I do. I'm your husband remember?'

'I don't have to tell you what I don't want to.' He opened his mouth to argue but she cut him off saying 'And it's affecting me academically so you can't use a teacher approach either.'

'If it affects you emotionally it will gradually affect you in other ways too.'

I-Pin turned around and though her eyes were red they were clear and she had a mocking smile on her face. 'Who says it's affecting me emotionally?'

'Idiot asks the obvious,' he fired back at her.

'I'm just having a little breakdown. Girls have breakdowns over stupid things all the time.'

'"Stupid things"?'

'Yes. Bad memories and all that, you know it all.'

He did. He knew I-Pin had many reasons to have an occasional breakdown but... 'I've never known you to have a breakdown over one of these stupid things before.'

'Maybe I've been able to successfully hide them from you all this while.'

'And maybe you haven't.'

They glared at each other in silence awhile before I-Pin said 'So?'

'So what?' Hibari snapped.

'So where does that leave us? If I'm having a breakdown for a special reason, what is it?'

She had a fine point there.

'Don't know?' I-Pin asked tauntingly.

He scowled before saying 'Maybe you're upset at me.'

'And for what reason would I be upset at you?'

'I don't know, you tell me.'

Another silence as they glared at each other again.

'You are upset at me,' Hibari said as if proving a point. 'You've been deliberately ignoring me for the past week.'

'Maybe I've just been moody.'

'You've never been like this before.'

'And? Don't tell me you're worried about losing me or something,' I-Pin smirked as if the very notion of her husband afraid of losing her, his wife, was absolutely ridiculous.

Hibari actually almost found himself begin to say yes but he quickly said instead 'It's rude to ignore someone you live with like that.' He frowned. That sounded foolish. But it was better than admitting he was afraid of losing her love, afraid of her leaving him.

...Wasn't it?

I-Pin rolled her eyes. 'Right right whatever. And here I am having just deluded myself into believing you actually cared.'

Of course he cared! They were married for God's sake and you didn't get married without caring for your spouse. 'Of course I care,' he muttered quickly before he could change his mind. 'That's why I asked.'

He was pleased to see I-Pin thrown off by this. It was a moment before she could say anything. 'W-Well... d-does it really matter...?'

He smelled victory and she smelled defeat. 'I wouldn't ask if it didn't,' he said.

Hibari thought for a moment he'd had her and next second realised he shouldn't have been so naïve.

'Whether it matters or not you can't force me to tell you what I don't want to,' she said indignantly.

Fine point. He almost hung his head.

'If I've done anything wrong then please tell me,' he said almost meekly. Note the almost.

I-Pin couldn't help but feel his sudden change in tone of voice was a lie but she said in a flat voice that held no conviction whatsoever 'You haven't done anything wrong, Kyouya.'

It hit him hard that it was the first time in a week she'd talked to him using his first name. She did not speak to him at home and at school it was 'Sensei'.

'Then why are you so mad at me?'

'I think we agreed I wasn't mad at you.'

No they hadn't. 'If you aren't angry at me then why have you been ignoring me for the past week?'

I-Pin bit her lip. She pulled a little farther away and shook her head. 'It's nothing,' she said as she stood up. He grabbed her wrist as she walked away, stood up and said in her ear 'If something is bothering you, I have a right to know.'

She turned around slowly and looked up at her husband. His expression was unfathomable but I-Pin knew that was just how she loved it.

'You can tell me anything,' he persuaded and though I-Pin felt this was not true, it sounded very comforting then. He was still holding her hand.

'I'm not sure about that,' she said with a small smile.

'Tell me this at least: are you upset at me?'

She hesitated. 'No.'

'Really?'

'Well if you think otherwise why ask?'

'Will you tell me what I did then?'

'I told you – you haven't done anything.'

'Then what's upsetting you?'

'It – it's just –' she pulled her hand away and took a step back. He put an arm around her waist and drew her close silently. She made no objection but shook her head as words failed her.

'But it's my fault?'

'Y-Yes...?'

It wasn't in his nature to say sorry really. Mostly because he never was sincerely sorry. Usually because he never cared about the people he owed apologies to. He felt slightly uneasy. Of course, they'd had many scrapes before but never like this. She had always forgiven him easily. And he'd never had to say sorry.

His arms around her tightened and he said quietly 'I'm sorry.'

I-Pin might have gone into shock. I mean like, wow, he said he was sorry. Was this actually her dear lover, Hibari Kyouya, she was dealing with?

Yes. Yes it was.

'Kyouya are you feeling alright today?' I-Pin said teasingly. 'First you fuss over how I am and then you apologise for it. That's not like you at all.'

He scowled, embarrassed and her grin merely grew wider as she looked up at him and a slight colour came to his cheeks.

'I'm perfectly fine thank you,' he said snappishly.

'Relax, I was just joking around,' I-Pin rested her head on his chest. 'I forgive you.'

Hibari almost released a sigh of relief. A great burden was taken off his shoulders as he pressed is lips to the top of her head.

'Sorry – I acted a bit of a jerk. I should've discussed it with you.'

'It's fine,' he said, relief barely apparent in his face.

I-Pin pulled herself away to look up at him briefly. 'But – you know – you really are fun to torture with the silent treatment.' She smiled angelically. 'Hikari-sensei said you were on edge the whole time and this morning you were near desperate.'

She shrieked as she was lifted off her feet into his arms and dragged off to bed. She was so going to get it.

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**Hey you know what? Blame my perversion on Hisa. Yes.**


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